How’s the weather? New campus weather station has the latest report

08.12.2024

From Brooke Coupal

When classes start in early September, students wonder what to wear. Do they need a rain jacket? A sweater? Is it warm enough to wear shorts?

Thanks to a new weather station on South Campus, people can get accurate and reliable information about current weather conditions at UMass Lowell.

The UMass Lowell Weather Station, which officially went online in mid-July, provides real-time weather observations, including air temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, solar radiation and soil moisture. Data from the weather station, located next to the UMass Lowell Schueller Observatory, is updated every 10 minutes on the UMass Lowell website.

“Weather conditions can change dramatically in space, so relying on a station that’s a town or two away, or even another station in Lowell, isn’t necessarily representative of what’s happening on campus,” says Christopher Skinner, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “Now we have measurements that are being made locally on campus, and that’s really useful.”

Skinner oversaw the construction and calibration of the solar-powered weather station, which includes instruments ranging from a rain gauge to a digital temperature sensor, and looked for students to help him. Sam Morgan, a meteorology and atmospheric sciences student, jumped at the opportunity to work on the weather station after learning about it at a meeting of the American Meteorological Society.

Image courtesy

“The weather station offers a great experience for anyone who wants to get into the field of meteorology,” says the sophomore from Boulder, Colorado. “I’m looking to do an internship next summer, and working at the weather station will help me a lot with that.”

Troy King (graduating ’23), who earned his master’s degree in environmental studies with a concentration in atmospheric science, helped test the weather instruments in Olney Hall before installing them on South Campus.

“It’s important to get firsthand experience on the ground,” says King, who credits his experience at the weather station with helping him land a job as an environmental scientist at Bluestone Environmental at the U.S. Army Garrison at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

Skinner envisions students using the weather station to research weather trends and climate change. He also sees it as an opportunity to enhance various atmospheric science courses.

“It’s an amazing teaching and learning laboratory,” says Skinner, who plans to use the permanent weather station in his “Atmospheric Measurements and Data Analysis” course this fall.

The data collected by the weather station benefits the campus. The grounds team is working to connect the weather station to the campus irrigation system to indicate when watering is needed, reducing water wastage.

Image by Brooke Coupal

“We are already a very sustainable campus and this is another step to increase our sustainability,” says Skinner.

There are plans to archive data from the station so people can view past weather reports online. The station is also affiliated with the commercial company Weather Underground, making campus weather data available to a wider audience.

With the weather station full of possibilities, King is excited about the future of meteorology and atmospheric science at UMass Lowell.

“I’m proud to have helped get the weather station up and running,” says King, who grew up in McCalla, Alabama. “Students will get more hands-on weather experience at UMass Lowell that they don’t get at many other places.”